1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus and an ultrasound diagnostic method, and more particularly to an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus and an ultrasound diagnostic method for taking and displaying an ultrasound image of a subject using ultrasound.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a technique has been proposed of analyzing a property of a reflector such as a minute structure (for example, a calcified region in a breast), a continuous surface, or a speckle included in a subject, and enhancing or suppressing a display of the reflector in an ultrasound image on the basis of the reflector property in an ultrasound image processing. Proposed techniques of distinguishing a reflector include, for example, a technique of distinguishing between reflectors by differences in value or shape of amplitude information of ultrasound (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2003-61964, 7-8487 and 2000-300561), or a technique of noting the manner of change in amplitude value between frames (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-94248). Also, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-305337 discloses a technique of extracting minute calcification by performing a CFAR (Contrast False Alarm Rate) processing of removing a speckle pattern from a B mode image and an MIP (Maximum Intensity Projection) processing in ultrasound diagnosis of a breast.